Hill Farmstead Brewery

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Profile of a guy who brews beer -- albeit what some people think is the best beer in the world -- on a farm in rural Vermont turns into a meditation on the question: "if a thing is worth doing, is it worth doing at the largest possible scale or the smallest possible?"

Driving back down the mountain, and up into the forests of Quebec as the night and fog roll in, I can’t help but ponder the future of a place like Hill Farmstead. So many people work hard to see their business grow. Others like Shaun work even harder to see their business matter. And that’s where the hustle comes from — the unending sensation that there is always more to be done, and done better. Shaun didn’t set out to establish an artisanal brewery in an idyllic setting with the hopes that beer geeks would set out on some Bacchus-conjuring pilgrimage to find his bottles. Although, that’s sort of happened. What he did do was set out to prove that you could do the job you want to do, where you want to do it, as long as your priorities are in order. If he’s right, it’s going to take an immense amount of work, and an unwavering pursuit of perfection — and he alone is going to have to be the one to do it, over and over again.